Israel: Strategic Asset or Liability?
July 25th, 2010 § 7 Comments
The following is a transcript of Ambassador Chas Freeman, Jr.‘s remarks, which begin around 17:00.
Rumi On Reason
July 24th, 2010 § 6 Comments
(adapted from his Fihi Ma Fihi )
M. Shahid Alam
Man seeks to know God, not because he is knowable;
not reasonably, but by reasoning he knows him.
When man accepted the trust, it was reason
he acquired, to say yes to his Creator.
Man is a moth, God a candle. When his wings
wrap around the candle’s flame,
why should they not burn –
and he perish in its fire?
A moth that shuns the candle’s flame
is not a moth. A candle that does not
draw the moth, that will not
burn it to ashes – is not a candle.
Man is not man if he denies God,
if he eviscerates his urge to know him.
A god that man can know is not
God, he is man’s alter ago.
– M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University, Boston, and author of Israeli Exceptionalism (Palgrave: 2000). Visit his website – http://qreason.com – and write to him at alqalam02760@yahoo.com.
Why Jeff Goldberg Is Losing It
July 24th, 2010 § 4 Comments
by M.J. Rosenberg
For two days, the Atlantic’s Jeff Goldberg has been calling Stephen Walt, John Mearsheimer and other critics of Bibi Netanyahu “anti-Semites.” Nothing new about that. For Goldberg, a major AIPAC neocon, all critics of Israeli policies are anti-Semites by definition. (See this good piece on Goldberg).
But why is he obsessing about Walt so much now?
It is because, in August, Goldberg is coming out with his big Atlantic piece calling on the United States to bomb Iran so that Israel does not have to.
But Goldberg has a problem. As an American who chose to serve in the Israeli army (he was a guard at a Palestinian prison camp), he fears that Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer — who accused the Likud lobby of promoting war with Iraq in their groundbreaking bestseller — will point out that Goldberg is just about the least credible advocate for war with Iran.
Mosque closure in Spain teaches Muslim immigrants the possibility of praying in one’s home
July 24th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Lleida mosque (Photo: Belén Fernández)
Earlier this week, the mosque on Nord Street in the Catalonian city of Lleida, an hour and a half from Barcelona, was closed by order of the city council, which cited a violation of the fire code due to the volume of prayer attendees. According to an article in the July 23 edition of the Spanish daily El País, local imam Abdelwahab Houzi denounced the closure as political:
Houzi, who denies being a salafist, one of the most radical currents in Islam [sic], noted that the closure might be related to his opposition to the prohibition on using the Islamic full veil–principally the burka and the niqab–in municipal buildings [and other areas]. The city council of Lleida was the first in Catalonia [to pass such a prohibition] and was followed by 15 or so other cities and towns.”
El País also quotes the reaction of the mayor of Lleida, Àngel Ros, to Muslim prayers being conducted in the street following the closure of the mosque, which was to inform the Muslim community that he himself prayed in his house. Ros is variously described in the article as a socialist and a practicing Catholic, although nowhere is he forced to defend himself, as Houzi is, against religious stereotypes, thus avoiding an introduction such as: “Ros, who denies being a pedophile…” The emphasis on the domestic nature of Catholic prayers meanwhile calls into question the financial necessity of ubiquitous ornate churches.
People’s Lawyer Sentenced to 10 years in Prison
July 24th, 2010 § 2 Comments
Not enough has been written about US civil rights attorney, Lynne Stewart, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for distributing press releases on behalf of her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. The majority of mainstream output seems to have been generated by right-wing commentators highlighting the fact that the 70–year-old chemotherapy patient will likely die in a prison cell. Often referred to as a people’s lawyer,’ many believe Stewart’s harsh sentence has more to do with a McCarthyesque crackdown on lawyers who represent those targeted by America’s ongoing ‘war on terror’ than upholding the law.
Columnist Michael Goodwin recently contributed the same article to Rupert Mudoch’s Fox News and the New York Post with different titles (“Justice for the Devil’s Advocate vs. “Let the Devil’s Advocate Rot”) after Stewart’s sentence became public. Goodwin praises the decision to increase Stewart’s initial sentence and says her case “should also serve as a warning to other lawyers with a nasty habit of romanticizing their terror clients.” His article is currently featured on the front page of Keep America Safe’s website, a neoconservative lobbying group founded by Dick Cheney’s daughter Elizabeth, and neocon political commentator, William Kristol.
Hedgebrook Interview with Suheir Hammad
July 23rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
In 2009 I attended a reading in Seattle, Washington hosted by the wonderful Hedgebrook, an American non-profit dedicated to supporting female writers by providing residencies and other forms of support. The event featured some of Hedgebrook’s best alumnae, including the brilliant Palestinian-American poet, Suheir Hammad.
Israeli Report Confirms Goldstone Report’s Main Findings
July 23rd, 2010 § 1 Comment
By way of Yaniv Reich of the excellent Hybrid States:
Several of the most dramatic instances of war crimes, which previously stirred Israel’s defenders into fits, are now publicly admitted by the IDF in the recent update to its official response (which can be found here).
Some examples of war crimes include:
- White phosphorous in urban areas: This one is probably the most famous admission that emerged after a series of easily disproved lies. Israel’s initial response was one of absolute denial, indeed indignation, that people would suggest it had used banned chemical weapons in densely populated areas. But the steady stream of photos and videos depicting phosphorous burns on children and buildings eventually forced Israel to admit it had used these prohibited weapons.
- The murder of two unarmed Palestinians carrying white flags of surrender.
- The Al-Fakhura Street incident: Israeli mortar fire at a site adjacent to a UN Relief Works Agency compound resulted in multiple civilian deaths.
- The use of innocent Palestinians as human shields: The Goldstone report explains that in order “to carry out house searches as human shields the Israeli soldiers took off AD/03’s blindfold but he remained handcuffed. He was forced to walk in front of the soldiers and told that, if he saw someone in the house but failed to tell them, he would be killed. He was instructed to search each room in each house cupboard by cupboard. After one house was completed he was taken to another house with a gun pressed against his head and told to carry out the same procedure there. He was punched, slapped and insulted throughout the process.” The new Israeli report identifies this anonymous human shield AD/03 and confirms this episode. Other cases of human shield use, e.g. Abbas Ahmad Ibrahim Halawa and Mahmoud Abd Rabbo al-Ajrami, were also confirmed.
Postwar Photographs of Lebanon by Amelia Opalinska, Round II
July 22nd, 2010 § 2 Comments
A few months ago I posted a series of photographs of Lebanon taken in 2006 by my traveling companion Amelia Opalinska, in the aftermath of the July War perpetrated by Israel. I am now posting a second round in honor of the fourth anniversary of the conflict, which is referred to by the Israelis as the Second Lebanon War–the first being the 1982 invasion of Lebanon that killed approximately 17,500 people, mainly civilians. Other destructive Israeli incursions into the country, such as those in 1978, 1993, and 1996, have been exempted from the war count.
As for the second Qana massacre, which refers to the July 30, 2006 obliteration by Israeli air raids of 28 civilians in the same south Lebanese town where 106 refugees sheltered in a U.N. compound were obliterated during the 1996 conflict, potential candidates for the official Israeli title for the incident might include “the Second Qana Mistake” or “the Second Israeli Weeping Session for Qana”. The latter suggestion is inspired by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz’ legal analysis of Israeli reactions to being forced by Hezbollah to kill Lebanese children.
Ten of Opalinska’s photographs appear below. More to follow next week.
Israel not a democracy: Jonathan Cook interview
July 22nd, 2010 § 2 Comments
A worthwhile Russia Today interview with Nazareth resident, journalist and author, Jonathan Cook.
Bad Aroma: Off-Off-Broadway BDS Musical
July 22nd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
